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==== Flotilla debrief notes ====

Friday, 14 December 2012
Rasa, Shelli, Tim, Nik, Maja, Uroš, Bart, Carole, Alkan, Christina, Pacome, Dismas, Natalya, Marko

Notes on the outcome of [[the Flotilla]] scenario, our final [[Future Preparedness]] prehearsal for the Resilients project.

----

three questions about how we work together on interesting things in this scenario:
	yourself and the collective
	the flotilla as a possible future
	the prehearsal method

=== Yourself and the collective ===

Tim
  * like being permanently stoned in a safe space
  * useful even if something self-imposed, creating a feeling of value by making our lives more difficult then more easy - like setting yourself a small maths problem
  * the ladder added an extra degree of silliness to the proceedings, but was it necessary?
  * gamemaster roles unclear
  * engineering problem with the power - what is the scenario and what is a “real” issue? - unclear where the line was between this
  * made-up responsibilities, but the feast the only real responsibility

Carole
  * entering a very pretty and welcoming space, a home but different from home
  * inspired by the names - first session transported me to the ship
  * took me a while to realise about the electricity crisis - need a system in place for critical or dangerous situations
  * names created an imaginary of a faraway land and involved a long rite of passage in choosing, which turned my journey into something else
  * an emergency at home meant I had to leave my persona for the whole afternoon - really affected my personal experience - frustrating
  * need to be very prepared for a 24-hour period in another role
  * enriching over-excitement about so many great ideas and things to do
  * felt everything took a long time to do - took ages to do simple tasks

Bart
  * challenge to still be yourself while being something different
  * difficult for a non-human
  * inspired by Ben Okri
  * I was not an agave plant
  * wanted to stir up things if I was bitten by a rat
  * impressed by the level of activity that developed
  * struggle the first day, next day easier
  * talking/interacting with objects, non-human entities, e.g. automaton
  * lots of ideas about the future development of the non-human
  * people created a multiverse, talking about external world a challenge
  * surprised by the activities - not more done with the mayhem
  * wanted to see people find resilience in their flotilla roles but people took up their typical roles in daily life
  * the fiction vs nonfiction tension

Rasa
  * natural role to play, suited me very well: serving food, organising, etc.
  * festiveness worked well
  * as a collective we have such a great bond with partners - like a family coming together, no need for ice-breaking
  * great diversity
  * group was a nice mix - at least one person you didn’t know but also lots of people you know
  * names were great but difficult to remember
  * creating the feast was extremely special - wow!
  * some things quite silly and not necessary but they brought interesting dynamics

Christina
  * activities very interesting but without aim or purpose
  * only 24 hours to invent these purposes
  * no real tasks or problems to solve (except preparing food)
  * difficult to leave the scene of Marko’s departure and go and meditate
  * constant business - strange to me
  * skills make the group very resilient, but we had to invent tasks to use our skills - we managed this very well

Pacome
  * didn’t want a specific role - nice to be a passenger
  * food - basic task
  * a passenger staying longer becomes something else
  * ritual very important and nice for creating the fiction
  * the mix of reality and fiction: a tool or liability?

Uroš
  * came late to the ship which changed my experience - missed the rite of passage, of leaving something behind
  * at first tried hard to observe and analyse
  * then just enjoyed being at FoAM - a time off, a different tempo
  * roles not very structured, not boredom, though some element of laziness

Dismas
  * French kissing created quite a lot of poisons…
  * choosing the name, chance to read about the culture novels
  * collective responsibilities confused with many ideas
  * being a cook was flexible - learnt a lot of things, e.g. making bread, schnapps, French kissing workshop, gardening
  * working and living together with diverse people really good
  * flotilla structure perfect
  * all activities a bit chaotic
  * openness about sharing information
  * getting answer from flexible demeanour you got a flexible answer
  * Theun was always trying to find time to sleep
  * power cut - contingency plans for this
  * real world vs imagined scenario - need to preempt the future
  * never tried yoga - everyone talking about energy - bringing energy to people
  * collecting resources for the future

Shell
  * entry to the Flotilla very moving, opening it up to people not currently at FoAM
  * enthusiasm and stress about the costumes was really touching because it showed how important they were for everyone
  * many different roles esp. with documentation - really nice but on reflection maybe just one role would have been better - as a quiet meditation
  * meditation on responsibility
  * relationship to the collective - sometimes I need my own space
  * didn’t take time to be there for myself
  * dinner was magical
  * a vague scheme materialises
  * sense of humour really resilient
  * to see the space transformed into the Flotilla was magical
  * not sure if I understood the role switch - getting into character - maybe more distance to get into character
  * magic to be floated away on the Flotilla

Maja
  * continuous weight of responsibility of captain
  * this ship would have sunk
  * things going wrong - electricity was a simple thing but nothing happened
  * magnifying glass on how things already are in this group
  * amazingly strong with simple clear fun tasks, celebrations - rare to find such trust and ease of togetherness - we could run a restaurant or club easily
  * but I’d be really scared to rely on other when things go wrong
  * marko’s escape got done really well
  * but the shared purpose part was lost in the flurry of activities that are nice but not relevant beyond the group
  * very painful because it became crystal clear that many things need to change

Nik
  * three main components of the exercise:
    * 	feast
    * 	publication
    * 	maintaining and exploring the scenario
  * good at randomly dissipating nervous energy - exciting and frivolous things
  * a distance between activities and scenario - making the connection was difficult
  * feast leaving behind apocalyptic visions
  * the world didn’t end
  * publication a good task to reflect on
  * brought into focus patterns and antipatterns
  * getting into character and finding a place within the scenario enjoyable
  * we were building something, but it was very unclear

Natalya
  * as a mushroom, mixed feelings
  * didn’t know the people or the space
  * confused with the costumes - over costumed, over-theatrical - just wanted to shake people out of this
  * wanted to some inner connection
  * lack of observation, decisions about how and what to do - ok for one day but not longer
  * overplayed and artificial, but very enjoyable - still need to digest the experience
  * Slovenia was very different - more time to develop
  * good to see the same people in different situations but still within one network

Marko
  * lost my resilience
  * just had an intense month of real-world practices
  * liberating situation - thought it was going to be very different - expected very concrete tasks - realised this was not the case
  * stoned or removed from reality but shared common interests
  * leaving the Flotilla was like bringing an inner world into the outer world - great sense of purpose in the morning - we actually had the ladder, otherwise would have to use sheets
  * interesting to see what we were doing made sense
  * role-playing was great
  * sleeping arrangements and rhythms of sleeping interesting - rest extremely important for resilience
  * tendency to sleep in this scenario - in any normal gathering no one would just start sleeping - quite beautiful
  * morning really well executed - really sad to leave
  * sent SMSs to report my progress after disembarking the Flotilla
  * met the Slovenian prime minister (surrounded by about 20-35 women) at the airport after the Flotilla - how to explain where I’d just come from?
  * 24 hours very short - read the bulk of the documentation just before the scenario
  * shows we still have a child inside - this is the most important and resilient lesson we can learn
  * how I described the Flotilla to others: “I was just with a group of very beautiful people”

Alkan
  * had a screw loose
  * struggle with the whole issue of personal vs collective
  * compressed 24 hours was a nightmare come true, was dreading it
  * will never be resilient in this kind of scenario
  * planning was nice, but got flu just before starting - this made the lack of inner connection to the scenario more pronounced and made it unenjoyable
  * but lot of beautiful little moments - like the the late-night silent “ghost” party
  * but difficult to find a connection with prehearsal overall

Cocky [via email]
  * the group dynamics were going down the drain
  * the ones not willing to participate or giving to the whole might have the hardest time, and were just sucking energy from the others
  * this mechanism amplified on the Flotilla
  * everybody was sort of more floating around rather than heading towards a clear direction
  * for myself, I would prefer not to to dedicate myself for/in a community (unless  i could fulfil the role of a passenger)
  * feels too enclosed - the Flotilla felt more like a cut off entity from the world instead of living in the world

Trudo [via email]
  * IMO it proves that linear, and non linear travel are best suited as a way of working, collaborating, or simply getting together
  * overall, the 24-hour timeframe, and the politeness of the participants prevented much of the fragility to break
  * timeframe was short, on the positive: no need for a lot of magic to make us believe in the trip

Nico [via email]
  * it is not an everyday thing for me to find company to speculate without boundaries
  * somehow it ended happening that about a couple of dozen of us where gathered in the same space at the same time
  * it is a efficient exercise to spend the most valuable resource that we all have (time) under this conditions
  * being shameless in proposing new subjects which are then fed by the others is a dynamic in such interesting projects
  * I just found a great tool that can be used many times and that will be shared with many others

Loes [via email]
  * I think the well established setting (location, costumes, food supplies, gifts) was very good and turned out very important
  * appropriating a role went quite naturally when you can stay close to your own person
  * there was place for different ambiences: serious thoughts, silence at the campfire, fun, party, ..
  * open questions that were posed:
    * what does the outside world look like during flotilla?
    * what catastrophes would make us actually change our lives this drastically?
    * would you ever join a community like flotilla?
  * the prehearsal reflects very well the travels and experiments we've taken during Resilients - it was good to have this experience with the whole group

=== What was resilient and what was fragile? ===

  * respect
  * agreement on shared means
  * shared supply issues

  * issues with taking care of your own trash, awareness of your traces - cleaning up after yourself but goes beyond this to an awareness of the space, of others, of what you use
  * as a group we could have resolved this - seeing the real problems and addressing them immediately with people able and willing to help
  * issues of self-sustainability and responsibility

  * documentation - important but fragile

  * lack of clarity in certain situations - e.g. in an emergency: what is an emergency and what to do?
  * but this is in conflict with the fiction
  * weird in-and-out fiction-real situation contributed to this feeling of being lost

  * set of principles (not rules)
  * imbalance in principles
  * rules and responsibilities emerging spontaneously
  * how to self-organise when working together
  * roles and real things - if every role had a concrete duty it might have enhanced the prehearsal
  * practical down-to-earth survival vs cultural creative resilience - Carole did not know we were doing both - work and life - bot resilient and fragile
  * ritual important - concretely for the group and keeping the fiction alive - bridge between everyday life and the fiction
  * no game master, laws of physics - fragile

  * 100% commitment fragile
  * sharing knowledge, resources - resilient

  * number of people involved - a limit to the number of people in a group that can function without resorting to formal rules - 25 people?
  * original idea of flotilla to have 100-200 people - a mini-society

  * demon of resilience - high expectations
  * angel - playfulness and lightness
  * and for non-humans? - they are both angels and demons

  * time for feedback
  * e.g. group photos a time for feedback, time out, “reality” checks

=== Prehearsal ethod ===

  * names - good for another role but took too long to remember
  * introduced a fictional element that had less to do with us or our context
  * made the exchange more difficult
  * everything too complex to do in 24 hours
  * people went out of role
  * first shift too short - too many things to do
  * first shift too long?

  * boat metaphor good
  * 4 hours a good time - long enough but short enough

  * actual design of the flotilla not clear
  * unexpected future but no unexpected things happening
  * Rasa for example had lots of predefined tasks - she knew what would happen - but most of us didn’t have this sense
  * Rasa not aware we would have to divide roles so strictly beforehand
  * unequal situation - e.g. Rasa was at home and knew the space/scenario
  * time to allow roles to evolve - part of the [pre]design or collectively decided
  * everyone involved in the prehearsal should be involved in the scenario preparation from beginning to end - or else have a much more defined structure
  * dilemma of more or less structure - if other people are coming in more structure is needed
  * a neutral or new space

  * methodology really important and takes time - is it really in character, performing, are you playing roles or is this necessary?
  * extrapolation of yourself - what would have made this more clear?
  * email terrible way of communicating complex stuff - so much left unsaid, what is really important and not
  * briefing as important as the prehearsal: more time to talk before going into the prehearsal - deeper collective briefing
  * no focus on the dinner the night before, and the morning was also chaotic

  * last big meeting 6 months ago, wanted to catch up and talk about our projects but if I’m this character what do I do?
  * an unstructured day where there were no roles, names, responsibilities would have been good

  * but with formal thing first then people are committed
  * tried the informal gathering in June but only two people would have been there
  * handbook discussion first?

  * preparation vs playing - different between preparing it for ourselves and preparing it for others
  * confusion over playing for yourself and for others

  * Marko’s role can fit in the scenario - so let it happen
  * strictness vs spontaneity
  * we could work Marko beforehand, didn’t know about Bart’s

  * several briefings?
  * e.g. only told our stories once
  * but if at every shift change there was an elaboration of the story it would be more effective
  * sit down for 20 minutes to write down our roles as a ritual

  * prehearsing a skill you can learn?

  * if we were on a ship, where are we going, what was the weather, sensual experience of being on the sea?
  * scenario round the ship itself - out to sea on its own, travelling round from place to place?
  * work on narrative details would have made it more effective
  * lots of details not decided on - the network, the water, etc.
  * world-building - more frequent discussions would helped this

  * integrate a crisis plan for all participants

  * building up the values of the flotilla - curiosity, integrity…
 
  * characters - picked beforehand, not changing characters quickly
  * confusing changes of characters
  * could have made roles more clear from the beginning
  * observers - where the ship was heading to - observing even the music as a way of telling where we were
  * clearly integrated we could know where we were
 
  * never put your eggs in one basket
  * never put all resilients in one boat

  * world-building vs improvisation

  * develop links, foster the mycelia, where will the mushrooms pop up